Co-sponsored a bill to ease trade restrictions against the Communist dictatorship in Cuba

Supports partial-birth abortion

Opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Michael Capuano is a Democratic member of Congress who represents the Eighth District of Massachusetts, described by the Almanac of American Politics as "by far the most Democratic district in Massachusetts, and one of the nation's most reliable."

Capuano was born in January 1952 in Somerville, Massachusetts. He earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1973 and a Juris Doctorate from Boston College in 1977. He worked as Chief Legal Counsel for the state legislature's Joint Committee on Taxation from 1978-84. He also was a Somerville alderman from 1977-79 and 1985-89, and was Somerville’s mayor from 1989-98.

In 1998, after Rep. Joseph Kennedy announced that he would not run for reelection in the Eighth District, ten Democrats ran in the primary seeking to replace him. Capuano won with 23 percent of the ballots.

Organized labor is Capuano's biggest interest-group campaign contributor, supplying 42 percent of his political action committee (PAC) donations. One of Capuano's largest contributors is the American Association for Justice, formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.

In 2007, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appointed Capuano as Chairman of the Speaker's Task Force on Ethics Enforcement.

Capuano belongs to the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives. Americans for Democratic Action rates his voting record as 95 percent on the left side of legislation. During his legislative career, Capuano has voted: